Letter From the Editor Lopsided discipline takes toll on black male students African-American boys face a peculiar dilemma in Chicago’s public schools: how to get a solid education when, more than any other group of students, they are singled out for harsh punishments and sent packing for days, weeks, sometimes months at a time. Some are expelled—even in elementary school—for a year or longer. Many folks assume that these punishments are deserved. Isn’t it true, they ask, that black male students are more likely to behave in ways that warrant such sanctions?


Guest Column Suspended because I ‘didn’t know when to keep [my] mouth shut’ From kindergarten to 4th grade, I had serious problems in school. It started the day I came home and told my father that Columbus had discovered America, something that I had just learned in school. Instead of being excited about my “good news,” he had a reality check for me.